I purchased Xentec HID's for my 690, which has the 990 Adventure headlight (Rally Raid Kit). The light worked fine until last Sunday, when I rode it at the local OHV park, and it stopped working. After checking the wires, bulb, and connecting the ballast to my truck HID's, I found the ballast had went bad. Have any of you had any issues with HID's? I'm thinking something may have been wrong with the ballast to begin with, as the box said it was "shockproof."

Sorry no help... I'm looking for a good ballast myself. HID's have much better color rendition than LED though some new smaller emitors such as the Nichia 219 are getting better. Of course LED's have less to break on them.

Mega lumens from the new hi power LED's certainly have the wow factor - can blind others (and you when you hit reflective objects) but they don't help you SEE better than a good HID in a reflector. That's the tension between those two right now. "Aweing" someone with a lights power and helping you see better are not the same thing; there's no replacement for a well thought out/designed reflector.

More light food for thought... it's really hard to beat a 50 watt, Hi CRI FX-7 Bi-Xenon projector for on the road lighting. What would be really awesome for you fabbing experts would be instead of having 2 swithes for hi/lo would be to have 3 for lo beam/hi beam/off-road only beam... actually 4 - have an "off" at the beginning. And it needs to be more durable.... maybe some kind of waterproof, rubber shock mounted holder for the ballast?

Sorry no help... I'm looking for a good ballast myself. HID's have much better color rendition than LED though some new smaller emitors such as the Nichia 219 are getting better. Of course LED's have less to break on them.

Mega lumens from the new hi power LED's certainly have the wow factor - can blind others (and you when you hit reflective objects) but they don't help you SEE better than a good HID in a reflector. That's the tension between those two right now. "Aweing" someone with a lights power and helping you see better are not the same thing; there's no replacement for a well thought out/designed reflector.

More light food for thought... it's really hard to beat a 50 watt, Hi CRI FX-7 Bi-Xenon projector for on the road lighting. What would be really awesome for you fabbing experts would be instead of having 2 swithes for hi/lo would be to have 3 for lo beam/hi beam/off-road only beam... actually 4 - have an "off" at the beginning. And it needs to be more durable.... maybe some kind of waterproof, rubber shock mounted holder for the ballast?

Well I will debate your white LED's not being up to par with HID in CRI index.

I have 2 90mm hella's. With roo lights slim line HID ballasts , ( light force copy ) excellent light out put , but as stated above
More failure points ,but no issues so far , my lights are set up. , off hi/lo. ( one lamp low beam both hi beam )
The only thing I don't like is start up time , where LED is instant .

Once I'm working again I,ll get a pair of baja squadrons set up the same way ,

I have 2 90mm hella's. With roo lights slim line HID ballasts , ( light force copy ) excellent light out put , but as stated above
More failure points ,but no issues so far , my lights are set up. , off hi/lo. ( one lamp low beam both hi beam )
The only thing I don't like is start up time , where LED is instant .

Once I'm working again I,ll get a pair of baja squadrons set up the same way ,

I love my squadrons, they work very well. For the record, I've used a 50w hid in my 8" desert light. The LED seems better to me, I like the light color better.

Agree about not seeming to light up the road as well. It seems that the light from my HID's is monochromatic, as opposed to the mixture that makes up "white" light coming out of incandescent lamps. It could also be that the color temperature of the HID's is too high. Lower color temps more closely resemble incandescent light, and that may be what's messing with our eyes.

HID50.com - good enough for Walter and his extreme trips? Next on my to buy list

This is what I have in my 690 right now. (35W dim, 50W bright in a euro 990 headlight) I do prefer LEDs though. No heat up time. I hate having to wait for the brights to come on for 20 seconds if they cool off. If it is only 1 car, the bright will come right back on... any longer then that and you have to wait for the heat up again. PITA in my opinion.

My Aprilia 550 has a 1 HID bulb that moves location to change the focus between "dim" and "bright". It works better but doesn't have as good of pattern.

I am thinking the best of both worlds would be a squadron for the bright and an HID for the dim. Or 2 squadrons.. one dimmed down for the "dim" and both on full power for the bright. 80w total and 7200 lumans

No one mentioned that 2012's are 690 cc while earlier models are 654 cc (except for some SM models).

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